Transformation and Belief: Receiving my Sak Yant Sua Ku and Takroh

I climbed slowly down the short ladder from the corner of the ring, the cool air washing over the water soaked clothes, Vaseline and oil on my skin, while the warmth of blood streamed down from my forehead, along the bridge of my nose and down my chin. Because I was smiling, blood trickled into my mouth and crept into my mouthpiece; I could taste it. And I felt so happy.

Straight from my 108th fight, a victory and 6 stitches in my forehead, we drove through the dark highways with only a few other cars on the road to a room just outside of Rangsit and got a few hours of sleep before getting back into the car and heading over to Ajarn Pi Bangkrating’s Bangkok office where I would convince him of the sincerity of my desire to receive an enormous sak yant on my back. The third sak yant I’ve received from him and a triptych of yants at that.

A little background: the first time I came to see Arjan Pi I was very nervous. My Thai wasn’t great, but he had an assistant whose English was somewhat helpful in bridging the difference in understanding. I told him I was a Muay Thai fighter and that I wanted a yant on my elbow, but there wasn’t one that looked like what I had in mind in his book. Within a few minutes he’d searched through his phone and found a photo of a man he’d tattooed (a real “Illustrated Man,” totally covered in sak yant) and who happened to have an elbow tattoo. That was the one I wanted, that was the one Arjan Pi thought was right, and that’s what we did. From the start, our relationship has been grounded in his recognition of me as a nakmuay.

After the elbow tattoo my journey into sak yant has deepened and become more meaningful. Arjan Pi’s responses to my requests for larger, more masculine yants have been first immediate shock, then a few moments of making sure I know what I’m asking for, and then wholehearted commitment from both sides to getting the immense work done. You can read about my Sangwan Rahu chest tattoo experience in my blogpost from last year, which was a very intense experience. I thought getting my back done would be similar. It wasn’t.

When I first sent Arjan Pi an image of the tigers I wanted on my back, this was the image he sent in response:

That has been pretty much his immediate response twice now, this time by emoticon, last time in person. His reaction seems two fold: first, I’m asking for a lot of work. Arjan Pi isn’t lazy, he actually clocks an incredible number of hours sitting in his various offices around the world, which I reckon is how he’s managed to become so immensely fast and skilled in his artwork. Being an Arjan of sak yant is one’s Dharma, so whether or not his tattoos are beautiful is secondary to his ability to create the magic that they offer – I’ve seen some not-so-beautiful yant around, but they still do the job. Yants are devices. Arjan Pi has certainly has achieved his “10,000 Hours” despite his relative youth – he is a master. The second reason Arjan Pi’s face looks like that emoticon every time I ask for a yant from him is that I ask for things that women simply don’t want. sak yant aren’t gendered by rule but they are divided by gender in practice. If you want a tattoo that will curry favor, influence, or attractiveness, there are designs that women choose and designs that they don’t. If I were to be very general about it, I’d say that men can get pretty much any design and women’s selections are more limited – by their own choice. The design I was asking for is favored by high-ranking military or police, real manly men who have authority over others or whose jobs might be dangerous. Not really common for even a nakmuay (who by the way in Thailand are not commonly tattooed), but reasonable for one… if I were a man.

Expecting Similarity With My Last Sak Yant

When I’d thoroughly convinced Arjan Pi that I was not only certain that I wanted this yant, but that I was willing to sit for the hours that a piece of this size would require, he invited me to sit down and we got to it.

When I got my chest piece done part of the difficulty was that I was facing Arjan Pi and his face was very close to mine, so I couldn’t wince and pull faces or do anything to betray my discomfort. I had to be real stoic-like. I thought that was hard, at the time. In fact, I’d thought that my back would be less painful and also less awkward – for my chest I’d had to lean against a Good Samaritan who propped me up for hours during the tattooing process. Surely hugging against a pillow would be more comfortable.

I was wrong about all of it. The areas of my upper back that the tattoo covers all hurt immensely, every part of it, although some areas were far more difficult than others. That was one thing. But not being able to see Arjan was also difficult. Straight across from me was darkened glass that enclosed the room we were in, the doors slide closed so that the air-con only had to fill a small space. I could look into the dark glass and see myself and Arjan reflected, so I could see what he was doing and I could check every time he paused if he was cleaning the needle, getting more ink, stuffing toilet paper into his nose (he had a cold at the time) or putting the long rod for the needle down to start cleaning the skin or drawing with his marker again. So I kind of knew what he was doing, but I couldn’t see any of the work. I had no idea how much was or wasn’t done. It became an uncharted eternity.

As the hours progressed (and he works incredibly fast – like, truly mind-blowingly fast – which just goes to show how much work he puts in) the pain just got amplified. It’s not that it’s more painful, it’s just more difficult to tolerate as the skin becomes more tender and the needle starts going over the same areas, between lines already etched into the skin. It’s not that the volume gets turned up but rather that the space becomes an echo chamber, every sound bouncing around and clashing and becoming incoherent. That’s the kind of pain – it’s not greater pain, there’s just no reprieve between and it starts to clamor on top of itself. The pain gets kind of “shouty.”

And this is where the transformation happens. Sak Yant are not like design tattoos. You can’t stop a yant and book another session; you have to finish the yant, like every movie you’ve seen where the spell has to be cast and said precisely even while the storm rages. In my case, each tiger is a yant, as is the Takroh at the center – so it’s three main pieces with tons of text in between. I was given the option to stop by Arjan when the tigers were complete, but I didn’t want to stop. So we kept going. And there’s something in the process of knowing that you just have to endure, that you can’t stop it, that is a very keen lesson for life, for Muay Thai, for existence in general. It’s hard because part of what makes pain tolerable is the knowledge that it will stop. A “this too shall pass,” kind of thing. But you’re sitting there with this pain that makes the whole body quake involuntarily and it’s not passing; there’s no end. So I breathe and try to just be in the moment, but the moment is filled with pain and so it’s becoming this eternity of pain and I can’t think or distract my mind until it ends, because I don’t know when it will end. I just have to breathe and accept it. My pain tolerance is considered high – but this was different, even compared to the Sangwan I received across my chest. Near the end, Arjan just kept adding and adding to the middle – the most painful parts. He was putting in the spells – that part is the magic, a syllable here, two syllables there. He would stop for a moment, wipe down the whole piece and there would be this fleeting feeling a kind of tender care of the damp cloth cleaning off the sting. I’d look into the reflection of the doors and see him pick up the marker; and he’d pick up the needle again… all I could do was shake my head and accept. I could not make it stop. It stops only when it’s finished.

above: a few minutes of video of the process

I did cry, involuntarily. Only near the end, only for a few minutes, and Arjan “tsk-ed” me, quietly chiding me for losing control and would ask gently but firmly, “Sin-wee-uh, wai mai?” (“Can you endure?”) And I’d calm myself, breathe and carry on. I know that for sak yant in general you cannot, or simply do not, stop even if someone is breaking down. The Arjan gives you the chance to recollect yourself but they don’t stop to do it. What’s amazing about Arjan Pi – and I’ve never been tattooed by another Arjan, so I don’t know if this is unique to him or not – is that he actually seems to go a bit harder when you betray your struggle. It’s like, “if you want to let your mind break down then it will be worse; get your shit together, that’s how you make it easier.” He doesn’t say that, of course, but that’s the way the pain teaches you… or directs you. My trainer at Petchrungruang, Pi Nu, does something similar. He’ll put more pressure on you when you start to struggle, to see where your breaking point is. He’s stretching limits – or giving you the opportunity to do so, really – and if you figure out how to relax and just keep answering then he’s happy and you’ve grown. If you break, if you give up, he’ll take into account whether it’s a bad day for you or whether your limits are just too rigid, if they’re “set,” so to speak. Pi Nu guides young boys to become Lumpinee fighters and champions this same tacit, “find the solution within yourself,” manner that Arjan Pi practices with the tattooing of yant.

And that’s what’s so transformative about this experience. Have you heard folks talk about using psychedelics as a “shortcut,” to glimpse the shores and open the mind to islands of consciousness it may not have known, but then you have to do the hard work through meditation and living to get back to those shores for real… to actually touch them? That’s what being tattooed by Ajarn Pi is like. He’s a teacher and a guide. Pain is this river and it’s moving and you can kind of work around within its limits but you just have to let it carry you to wherever it’s going. This last experience was the most intense ever. I realized, very early on in the process, that most of the physical pain we experience in life is incredibly short – it’s very intense but temporally very short – a burn, banging your toe on a table, a cut, a fall, even a broken bone will fade into an ache after a pretty short time. Most of us are lucky to not live with chronic pain. So to sit here, voluntarily, and endure nearly 4 hours of constant pain is something unlike anything else. You have to sit in it; you have to realize you’ve chosen this.

Afterwards I apologized for crying. He told me it was alright, that the mind slips but it’s important to come back with calm acceptance. I knew that it was an emotional barrier that was breached from the pain – Kevin saw that too. But through all of that, it was an incredibly intense lesson. In that time I realized how privileged we are in life that we can call a “time out” or an end to our discomfort. To sit here and know that it’s not up to me, that I’ve gone into a transformation that will not stop until it’s finished, until you come out the other side.

Only the Beginning – The Nature of Amnat

These particular yant are so much more than I imagined. They serve as a reminder of where I went during that experience and I’m confident I can go there again, wear the paths into something I can revisit more readily. SakYantand amulets don’t imbue charisma or power out of nothing – they amplify qualities you already have, the values you want to strengthen. And these yant have been an incredible test for me, even after the trial of actually receiving them. In wearing this on my body, I’m forced to accept the messages they convey outwardly all the time. I hate being looked at, which as a westerner in the performance world of Muay Thai isn’t something I get to avoid all the time, but the tattoos make the stares more intense. Some days my mind and heart are cool with it, like “yeah, get a fuckin’ eye full!” And sometimes it feels horrid and I shrink. That’s me working against my own magic, that shrinking. And that’s part of my new lesson.

When I first put up an Instagram of the new tattoo, my friend Zippy said something like, “I hope you have what it takes to carry that Sak Yant.” He immediately softened it with a “I’m sure you do,” kind of statement, but I took the initial post to heart. I don’t know that I’m “benching my max,” so to speak. I feel very much like the intensity and weight of the tattoos is going to transform me into what it takes to carry the powerful yant. After my most recent fight, a loss that was an incredibly close fight and one in which I had significant disadvantages, I thought to myself that the yant is still bigger than I am – it’s still teaching me, but it’s pulling me up.

Part of the burden is the meaning of the yant. The Sua Kru (pair of tigers) is a power of influence and authority yant. It confers amnat, which is power associated with command – there is very little about amnat that is feminine. Amnat is military, it has rank and status over others. I did not know this when I choose the yant, but now that I know I feel it has chosen me. The Tigers also connect you to an animal energy known for its savagery – in some cases literal possession by the animal – a man was possessed during the Wai Kru ceremony in May and I could feel my own Tigers itching. In Thailand, iconically Tigers are seen as killers, perhaps more how we in the west view Great White sharks or wolves, and not simply as cool or sleek animals. The amnat power of command is therefore brutal, untamed. Though the Yant have other associative powers, the power of ittiphon (charismatic influence), and ittiroot (aura of magical invulnerability) and metta (charmed love/compassion) to temper the Tigers, but the force is still there.

Significantly, most Sak Yant in Thailand are kept hidden from public view, like a card up your sleeve. They are literally under your shirt ending at the sleeve or neck line and often only privately known. Even Sak Yant masters like Arjan Pi might look completely unmarked while wearing a T-shirt and long pants. The bank teller may be covered in sak yant and you would not know it. Some of this privacy is that sak yant are part of a magic/spiritual protection and warfare people conduct against potential enemies, some of it is that sak yant are associated with the poorer, or criminal classes; but I’ve chosen one that goes on display – you know what I’m packing – Thais can see these yant as very bold signatures, very real powers. Climbing into the ring may seem like entering with an axe. This is something no female fighter does at all, and really almost no male fighter. I don’t do it in order to be purposefully transgressive, but I understand that it is. Even before I had my Tigers I saw how my Sangwan Rahu changed people’s faces at a venue when walking through a crowd. With these yants, while wearing my fight top the burden becomes more acute. I am often the only farang at the rings where I fight. Their meanings become a public crucible. The magic doesn’t give you charm or luck or attractiveness or persuasion out of nothing. It asks it of you, forces you to connect to things above and beyond you, to become more than yourself. Since receiving these yant a number of the fights I’ve lost – albeit against some of the very best fighters in Thailand – have been very, very close and some I might have actually won on points but the decision went the other way because my opponent out-performed me, which is important in Muay Thai. My yant offer the power of persuasion, and these losses are sending me the message to be more persuasive. I’m holding a gun, but the magic doesn’t make you use it – I have to lean into the power. I thought to myself today that we have this phrase, “like water off a duck’s back.” There’s something physical that actually makes water roll off a duck’s back, just as a sak yant might very literally, physically offer protection – there are believers who test the magic of their yant by asking to be stabbed, for example. That’s not a belief in the theoretical power of yant; that’s very literal. But “water off a duck’s back” is also conceptual and I argue that we don’t think of it literally; none of us thinks that a duck cannot get wet. So it is with my yant. Rather than believing that the protection and power of “impenetrability” means that a knife will not pierce my skin, or that I will never be cut in a fight again, what I do believe is what it would look like to be impenetrable, which is unaffected, like The Hulk walking through a hail of bullets. “Water off a duck’s back” doesn’t mean you can’t get wet. It means you appear to be unaffected by whatever it is that’s “soaking” you.

When I got my Sangwan Rahu on my chest, my life changed. My path in Muay Thai shifted radically, I moved to Pattaya, my training changed and I got much better. It was a catalyst. I thought a lot about and meditated on the dark deity Rahu who became a patron and protector, as well as a pole star. When I got that tattoo, I felt like I was wearing armor. I felt and trusted and loved the transformation. With my Sua Ku Takroh on my back the change will be just as radical, if not greater, but it is surprisingly very different. Unlike with Rahu, I did not have an external force and principle to focus on. Instead it is the development of something within me. I have to keep working on it. It’s building me and in the process tearing me down. A few months ago I got my Mongkol blessed by Arjan Pi, which felt amazing and meant a lot to me – and I subsequently lost 3 fights, beginning with the one I fought the very same night I had it blessed. When I got my back yant, I got cut in 3 subsequent fights, more frequently than ever before, which my coach teases me about because the Takroh at the center protects against this. But I don’t think these are accidents or coincidences or signs of failure. I feel them to be processes, or trials. I embrace them. When I went to the Wai Kru ceremony at Arjan Pi’s the morning of my last fight in Chiang Mai, I prepared myself for the next trial. I don’t go to Arjan Pi with the belief that I will walk away healed, or invincible. I’m not looking for a genie in a lamp to grant me wishes. Instead, I feel strongly that these trials of 3 are shaping and enforcing my beliefs. If I walked away from receiving a sak yant with the belief that now I will never be cut again, I wouldn’t really believe it – especially when I get cut again. To me, I have a belief in the power; when it doesn’t “work” it isn’t a failure, it is exactly like when I ask Arjan for a particular yant and his immediate response is shock; then “are you sure?”; then one more test in receiving the tattoo itself, when the pain becomes so much that I’m “tsk-ed” and asked whether or not I can endure. That’s the process. And, indeed, I had six stitches in my face while I was receiving the Takrohyant, so the wound is woven into the process itself. I find that very meaningful.

Wai Kru – Arjan Pi in Chiang Mai

I received my Tigers and Takroh Sak Yant in February. May 1st was Arjan Pi Bangkating’s annual Wai Kru ceremony in Chiang Mai. I had about a month and half of experiencing the yant, and it would be the second Wai Kru for Arjan Pi I’ve attended. At the ceremony we arrived a bit late, which isn’t my style at all. Long story short, we had driven a ways out of Chiang Mai looking for what we thought was a new location for the ceremony; we finally figured out it was just at his old house and doubled back. When we arrived all the chairs were already filled up and a few folks in front of us were shuffling around, adding seats at the edges underneath the strings that hang down from a grid that covered everyone. The ceremony was just about to begin. From across these long rows of seated devotees, Arjan Pi sees me from where he’s seated in front of the giant shrine and into his microphone he says, “aah, Sin-wee-uh maa laeo.” (Ah, Sylvie has arrived.) Shout out to me through the loud speakers so everyone can turn and stare at me; my favorite, thanks.

We then were invited, over the loud speakers by Arjan, to take seats up near him in the front of the group. So we shuffled through the narrow lane in front of all his followers and someone added some seats under the strings, which Kevin unwound and we tied around our heads. This is a very cool thing and last year, at my first Wai Kru ceremony, I was totally lost. But this year I understood what was happening, knew how to conduct myself, and could actually repeat the chants along with the group. The strings come down from this huge grid and are used like a spiderweb to connect us all to the power source, which is the monk or Arjan Pi, who are chanting. It’s like we’re all connected to this merit battery. There’s a part in blessings where you pour water, which is a conductor. If you don’t have water you can touch the person who is pouring it – or if they’re giving an offering to the temple you can touch them and it’s from both of you because of this connection. That’s the same with these strings. And then you can rip the strings off the grid and take them home as these supercharged luck charms. I love it.

above: video of the group blessing and charging. Music is used to replace the actual chants, which may be private formula.

There’s a lot of chanting, first by Arjan Pi (the Kru to whom we are all paying respect in today’s Wai Kru) and then by a group of monks who all chant together. This lasts perhaps for an hour all together. Then food is distributed to everyone, soup, fruit and sweets. The way that people eat seems to be as if in eating you are achieving luck or merit – I’ll tell you, Thais are champions at eating in large groups. After everyone has eaten the students all line up and go in 5 at a time to offer Arjan Pi a gift plate (incense, candle and flowers wrapped together in a banana leaf). This is where your yants will be re-imbued, a big reason why his students return each year to pay respect. It’s a powerful ceremony and some devotees are known to be possessed by the spirits of their animal yant (you can find videos of this at the big temple in Bangkok that has an annual Wai Kru day), very often the tiger. It’s the power of the re-charging of the yant that causes this. I’m actually advised against having Tigers because, having been born in the year of the pig, I’m susceptible to the possession of tigers over the pig. I wasn’t possessed, but I do feel the energies of the Wai Kru ceremony and this year, as a man who last year also became possessed by his Tiger yant, I felt my own tigers itching. I read a book in which a Thai man says he feels his yants itching when he speeds in his car, as if they’re warning him. My own physical sensation felt a bit like that – not so much a warning, but a kind of strong suggestion to take note. It was momentary. I did not feel them itching at the moment that all my yant were actually being recharged, when I’m kneeled before the big Reusi shrine and Arjan Pi. He puts an inscription on your forehead with this scented clay while he chants, then puts the mask of Pra Reusi (wise man, hermit and father of Sak Yant) over your head and blesses you, blows on your head and hands you an amulet as a gift. Men got Pra Khun Paen, who’s pretty much the fucking coolest, and women received Pra Nang Paya, the “Queen of Amulets” and historically the mother of King Narsuan (who is connected to Pra Rahu).

the Khun Paen amulet given to men, a prayer bead and a blessed metal scroll.

The “male” gift set with the Pra Khun Paen amulet. You can see what monk made what here. (It’s in Thai, so just use a translator and the names are the last part of each item.)

The man in front of me took his amulet, wai-ed to Arjan Pi and then turned off to the right to be blessed by the monk sitting to the side. I took my offering plate in my hands and shuffled forward on my knees, keeping my head low as I approached Arjan Pi, who was seated on just a simple white cloth in front of his enormous shrine of Pra Reusi masks.

Again when I approached him he announced me, kind of to the monk and kind of to his helpers to the sides, “Ah, Sin-wee-uh, nakmuay.” (Ah, Sylvie, my fighter.) As he dipped a small wooden stick into the scented clay and began inscribing on my scarred up forehead, he smiled and asked me, “Sin-wee-uh, chanah mai?” (You win, right?) He was teasing me somewhat, implying that I win all the time now that I’m enchanted. I smiled and softly, barely loud enough for the monk behind me to hear me, answered that I do sometimes win. In my head I wanted to correct the question, to explain that I don’t have to win every fight, I just have to grow every fight and I believe that the guidance and processes I’m put through under Arjan’s Sak Yant are giving me uncanny abilities to do that. My belief in following Pra Rahu, the demigod of chaos, is like that also. It allows me to trust that “shit is fertile,” so to speak – there’s growth in misfortune or bad luck or failure. And that belief means a great deal to me. Believing I’ll only win would be like believing the sak yant won’t hurt – it has to hurt. The pain is the process, but not being broken by it or controlled by it, that’s the real triumph.

the receiving of the charge of the Reusi mask, Arjan Pi giving his yearly blessing.

So as I stepped back out and slipped through the line of people waiting to go pay respects to our teacher, I could smell the clay on my forehead. And I knew that this event was meant to give respect to a man who I believe is teaching me, not simply giving me transformation. I knew that my fight that night would be the continuation of my lessons, another trial of 3’s. And what I learned that night in the ring was this lesson I mentioned about being persuasive, even when the disadvantages are stacked on my head. To me, the power of my tattoos is not that obstacles won’t be placed in front of me; it’s that I’ll see them and know that my power is greater than whatever power is against me. That I’ve chosen this, that I can endure. The first step is authority over and persuasion of myself. Then it goes outward.

me, with the blessing inscription of fragrant clay on my forehead

My Vlog Update When Coming Out of the Ceremony

If you found this interesting you may like the other sak yant articles on 8limbs.us

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A 103 lb. (46 kg) female Muay Thai fighter. Originally I trained under Kumron Vaitayanon (Master K) and Kaensak sor. Ploenjit in New Jersey. I then moved to Thailand to train and fight full time in April of 2012, devoting myself to fighting 100 Thai fights, as well as blogging full time. Having surpassed 100 fights in 3 years here, my new goal is to fight an impossible 200 times in Thailand, as much as I possibly can, and to continue to write my experience.

1 Comment

mikey lee

February 6, 2016 3:26 pm

2 thumbs up. you endured the intense pain of 2 tigers. Surely you are worthy of carrying the emblem of the kings and warrior. I wish you victory, strenght and endurance in all your fights.

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above – our short film on a typical day of my training here in Pattaya (25 min) – วิดีโอซ้อมมวยกิจวัตรประจำวันค่ะ อยู่ที่พัทยาค่ะ We’ve been wanting to do this for a while, making a full day of training in video format. But things get pretty busy and shooting it all and editing just always got pushed back. At first we wanted to shoot it because I was training in an unusual way, back in February of this year, training both at Petchrungruang (2x) and once at WKO with Sakmongkol – training at two gyms in Thailand is rare and socially complicated, something I

this space is Sylvie’s space, where she writes her record. But with the first year of fighting completed I felt I wanted to add my thoughts, as a husband. In part because Sylvie is fighting for all of us, a family. guest post, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu I’m a pretty quiet guy around the gym and at fights, so much so people tend to not get past the exterior. But when they do one of the things they ask me is “Do you ever get worried when Sylvie goes in there?” This is such a natural thing to ask a

Surfing the Chaos I’ve known Emma for a few years now. We actually met through online communication and I forget that we didn’t actually meet each other in person until a little over a year ago. I really like Emma and recently I was scrolling through a feed of our private messages on Facebook in order to show something she’d sent me to my Thai friend and my friend remarked, “wow, you write so much! It’s like a book!” Yeah, we talk a lot. Which made me realize with surprise that I’ve not yet interviewed Emma. I’ve certainly thought to

Sylvie’s Tips – Muay Thai Techniques

This above is a little video help to Benjamin who wrote me about a basic problem he was having in sparring. It seemed like the best way to answer him was in a quick video. I try to help people who write in to me as best I can. Once I filmed it I realized that this is something a lot of others are probably having issues with. I know I still run into it after 3 years here, so I thought to turn it into a “Sylvie’s Tips” video. Hopefully it helps others. Benjamin asked about how his knee

The cloth training wraps that are so common in the West aren’t necessarily all over the place in Thailand. You can buy them at virtually any shop that sells equipment, sure, but they’re not used by all the Thais training at the camps. A lot of Thai boys don’t wrap their hands at all. Those who do, in my experience, often favor these cloth “fight” wraps that are more like gauze-linen and don’t have a thumb loop or Velcro. The western boxing style training cloth wraps we’re used to are expensive and, the more I’ve trained, the more they seem

Kick Where it Hurts This is another installment of Sylvie’s Tips where I seek to share some of the things my Thai trainers are teaching. The other day Kru Nu landed a couple leg kicks on my right (back) leg during padwork. He’s got a good low kick and his Thai students have really whippy, nasty low kicks as well. The first one hurt and all, but the second one – which was a good 10 minutes after the first – landed on just such the perfect spot, with just enough force, and while my weight was on it that

We got a question on the Muay Thai Roundtable forum the other day that I reckon is a pretty common issue. When I first started taking Muay Thai from Master K, he described the teep as the “electric fence” around every other technique. Teep comes first, basically – the first line of defense and keeping your opponent out of your space until you want them there. And I sucked at teeping for a really long time. It’s only fairly recently, in the last 1.5 years maybe, that my teep has become a favorite technique, and it didn’t become that way because

n Sylvie’s Tips I try to capture on video various small techniques that I run into while training. The way that it happens in Thailand, things are seldom taught to you in the form of formal instruction, rather they come up suddenly in training and then are gone. I’m pretty shy, so it’s hard actually go around and request these things; I don’t want to stop everyone and have them repeat things for the camera. In this case though we arrived at O. Meekhun gym to find organized instruction being given to Phetjee Jaa and one of the boys named

I’ve never really had opponents catching my kicks in fights, but that’s partially because I don’t really mid-kick. So, the reason I know that I suck at responding when my kick is caught is almost entirely through padwork, where I topple over like a kicked-over bicycle. Which is to say that I don’t really practice against this and only get reminded of how unpracticed I am when my trainer occasionally wants to mess with me. I do know how to handle the caught kick – I’ve been shown techniques from various sources – but I never drill them. When I visited

I learned a ton training with Sakmongkol in Pattaya for 7 weeks, as well in my time at Petchrungruang Gym. You can see my daily blog posts of my time with Sakmongkol here if you want to dig into the evolution of my lessons, the posts are pretty detailed with lots of video. Below are the lessons I learned, in particular the lessons or techniques I’m going to consciously work into my training at Lanna, now that I’m back in Chiang Mai. I’ll try to tell you why they were important for me and maybe they could help you, too.

above, my short Sylvie’s Tips on how I’m practicing Long Guard on the bag lately Everything little thing we do on the bag is repetition, even unconscious things can be “trained” into you. Simply taking a time out and walking back from the bag to reset during your rounds is that kind of small element. The further I get in my Muay Thai journey, the more I’m examining my bagwork (and shadow) for unconscious elements that I’m accidentally, or even non-efficiently training. It’s about awareness, so that I can figure out how to get my training into the ring with me

This post is in the spirit of this site, showing things in progress, as if passing reading notes so others can think along (and even train along) with me. I’ve thought a lot about this clinch since first witnessing it about 3 years ago. I’ve finally gotten myself to the position where I can teach it to myself. I first wrote about Tanadet (Poda) 2 years ago. The extended film clip below Kevin made as a study film for me, so I could figure out just what it is that Tanadet was doing. If you want a very good sense

Above is a little video of how I wrap my hands. I think it’s good to experiment with different kinds of wrap techniques as they have different strengths. It took me a while to settle on this one. Hand size, punching style, the wrap material itself can make a difference – I’ve been liking the longer, softer wraps of Top King and Punish (an Australian company). This wrap technique incorporates an extra padded layer made of a fold of the wrap placed on the knuckles first (for torn up skin, I’ve actually added a cut kitchen sponge for a few

Den Shows the “4” Block A Little Break Down of the “4” Block Den taught me this block a short while ago and it’s also very well utilized by Neung, who is a WBC boxing champion. Basically you use your back arm and fold it across your chin, so your elbow is right at the center to protect your nose and chin and your glove is at the opposite side of your head, protecting your ear and jaw. Then your front arm is the leg of the “4”, shooting straight out to jab or push on your opponent. Den isn’t

Sylvie’s Tips: The Floating Block Sakmongkol was the first person to tell me not to turn around on kicks. He was adamant about it. It’s very awkward when you first try and your kick can be really flicky and horrible, but the more you get it under control the more you realize how much this increases power. Basically you want to have confidence that you can control your kick at any time, so if you miss your target you’re not going to spin all the way around. Honestly, you’ll seldom if ever see this in a Thai fight and when

In my Dieselnoi Instruction post I made a video demonstrating some of the different sorts of knees used in Muay Thai. I’m not an expert in any of these, but I felt it might be good to just present an overview as a single, “proper” knee does not so much exist in Muay Thai, and there are many different techniques used for different purposes. Sometimes the focus is damage done, or accumulating points, or even just making sure the knee is clearly visible to the judges. As I say in the introduction to the video, these are all variations on knees and,

Some of My Best Posts

I’ve written before about how Muay Thai and fighting, to me, isn’t “violence.” My argument was that I have experienced real violence, the above is the story of my rape as a child, and that the consent and preparation involved in fighting isn’t the same. There is, however, a flavor of violence in Muay Thai – it is, as my old boxing coach Ray Valez would say, “the hurt business” and ultimately any fighter pushing for the highest form of the art of Muay Thai has to embrace this. Yesterday there was a young woman at my gym, Petchrungruang, who

I just had to do my annual visa run, which requires sitting in a van full of total strangers for the 11 hour drive up to the border with Laos, an overnight stay, then the 11 hour drive back down to Pattaya. It’s grueling. Sitting in a car or a plane for this number of hours takes a toll on anyone. It’s astonishing how tired sitting on your ass makes you. I’m not very social, so I always put as many hours of podcasts and audio books as possible on my player so I can leave my headphones in the

Apologies to my younger readers, this post is laced with profanity. Sometimes profanity has a special power to describe things in ways other words can’t. The plastic stool underneath me is too far out from the actual corner and my body kind of tips backwards as my cornermen lift my legs into their hands and rub icy cold water on my thighs and shins. I try to balance myself on the ropes but it’s more awkward and I reposition my forearms to the tops of my thighs; the cold water is going over my head now, which feels nice because

This article is about the flourishing Muay Thai of Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand, becoming the best female fight city in the country and very possibly in the entire world. No other city boasts such a complete native female Thai fight scene: it’s fed by side-bet (gambling) fights in the outlying provinces, stabilized by Sports Schools, hosted at a large number of local stadia (all of which allow women to fight in them) which hold fights every night of the week, and supported by the Thai Muay Siam media coverage. If you are a female Muay Thai fighter, this

Stephan Fox is the General Secretary of the International Federation of Muaythai Amateur (IFMA) and the Vice-President of the World Muaythai Council (WMC). He is a huge figure in the recognition and development of amateur Muaythai in Thailand, as well as international competition with both the IFMA and WMC. After 20 years of work, the International Olympic Committee has just given provisional recognition for possible inclusion in the Olympics – let me repeat that: 20 years of work for that, and Mr. Fox’s response is, “right on schedule.” above, the full 30 minute interview with Stephan Fox We cover a range of

What follows is not authoritative, it is just the things I’ve gleaned in my nearly 5 years of full time training at my various gyms, and in traveling around and taking privates from some of the best in Thailand. You can get access to my growing Muay Thai library with legends for a suggested pledge of $5. I read a rant on Reddit that, despite its intense language, does open up that some people do get frustrated training in Thailand, finding a lack of instruction and padwork that be repetitive. I do believe there is no better place in the

Alex and Note are standing on opposite corners of the ring, wearing shinguards and gloves, hanging out like they’re about to do anything other than sparring. They’re totally relaxed, laughing, joking. Kru Nu is pacing around and there’s a buzz around the circumference of the ring while the remainder of the boys all takes their positions along the ropes as spectators and Goh – one of the padmen for the kids – is hollering for Chicken Man. Kru Nu squats down with his hands on the top rope, peering under the staircase and out into the chicken farm, the most likely

First off, let me say it: weight, its not that big of a deal. There is a strong caveat to this, which is that it is a definite advantage, but so is height, or knowing the scoring system, or fighting since you were 10, or having a fight on your home turf, and so many other things. So while weight is always a potential advantage, it is just one among many possible advantages. You can beat people who have the weight advantage over you, just like you can with any of those other advantages. I know that in the West

read my guest post articles a Husband’s Point of View A Husband’s Point of View – Consider this a working theory. I’ve written about the uniqueness of Thai style training before, in The Slow Cook vs the Hack, and this article can be seen as something of an extension of that. But as Sylvie’s husband watching her progress through very earnest training and a hell of a lot of fighting, and seeing numerous westerners come through her Thai gyms, I’ve come upon something I think is pretty important. What led me to this is a very particular quality many serious

Below is meant to be a helpful guide, something that I wish I had when I first came to training Thailand. These are just things I’ve noticed in my 4 years of training and fighting here and are not hard and fast rules to follow. If you want to be polite in Thailand gyms, in a culture that is different than your own, these are just a few things to look for. There are of course a wide variety of gym experiences in Thailand, and things that are impolite in a small, family Thai-style gym might very well be common

A lot of us feel that aggression comes with an “on/off” switch, and that we should be able to flick it back and forth based on context. Many of us who are learning Muay Thai struggle with aggression, perhaps because we don’t feel that we are “naturally aggressive,” and it’s frustrating to watch those who are seemingly naturally gifted with aggression succeed in ways that we don’t see in ourselves. But aggression isn’t natural, even if it does seem innate in some more than others. I contend that aggression feels natural to some due to having spent years cultivating it before they

First a Little Bit About Daeng Daeng is one of the most fight-focused trainers I’ve trained with. When I was training at Lanna Muay Thai in Chiang Mai, it was Daeng who invested the most in diagnosing and fixing weaknesses in my fighting. He wasn’t my main trainer, but he’s a very good teacher and has a keen eye for finding how to improve on existing strengths and correct errors. I’d initially gotten a bit stuck with a technically brilliant but lazy and unmotivated trainer – that guy was a great trainer for some, just not for me – and Daeng

Join and Study my Muay Thai Library of Legends This is a full video of a private I took with Arjan Surat, Head Coach of the Thai National Team, and owner of the esteemed (but lesser known to the west) Dejrat Gym in Bangkok. I did a short review of the gym when I interviewed female fighter Kaitlin Young, and it was then that I met Arjan Surat for the first time: an absolutely extraordinary teacher and life-force of Muay Thai. The man is Old School-Old School, telling me that he’s been holding pads longer than I’ve been alive (he’s

The Gendered Experience

above, video interview with Loma and Chommanee One of the things that is surprising every single time I witness it is how humble, kind, and open fighters are outside of the ring. Even the superstars. I remember early in my career being thrown off by how nice my opponents seemed to be before a fight, I thought maybe they were tricking me by smiling and being sweet but then kicking my ass in the ring… but it’s not a front. That’s just actually how people are. The 16 Female Muay Thai Fighters I’ve Interviewed Loma Lookboonmee and Chommanee Taehiran are

Either Side of the Ropes Something happens when a woman steps into the ring. It’s not universal and I cannot speak for everybody, but I’ve both witnessed this phenomenon on many occasions in other women and I’ve experienced it myself. Women who are fantastic in training – padwork, bagwork, shadowboxing all with really sharp technique – seem to fall apart in sparring or in fights. I’ve seen men do the exact opposite, looking pretty sloppy and borderline bad in training and then suddenly get it together when within the ropes of the ring. What the hell is this? The most

Last week Kevin and I arrived at the gym at 8:00 PM, after evening training, in order to hitch a ride down to Wung’s fight at Kalare Stadium. It was as it always is at that time: relaxed disorganization floating through a quiet, darkened gym. After a long while of waiting it became clear that nobody else was coming to the fight and Wung even laughed and asked us why we wanted to come see. “Because we love to watch you fight,” was the most direct and honest answer. With only Den, Wung, a student of Wung’s from Hill Camp

I’ve been called a man twice in the past month – something I’ve experienced many times in Thailand and in the past largely read as a mixed insult or at best a backhanded compliment. It’s not unusual in Thailand for people to make blunt comments about your appearance. But these two have been some of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. I’m not ashamed to be a woman, so what’s with the pride in these two instances, what made the difference? And why were these important to me? The first occasion was at Thapae Stadium in Chiang Mai. The night

Preface: I wanted to write on this topic right after reading the Lion Fight interview with Tiffany Van Soest prior to her fight with Caley Reece on the Lion Fight promotion. It ended up taking me longer than I’d expected to make the time to actually sit down and write it. Female fighter and blogger Natasha Sky also was inspired by this same interview (the question of risking beauty was also posed to Caley Reece, facing Van Soest on that card) and she wrote a piece on her blog, including questions to other female fighters on their opinions on this

There’s a street vendor cart right below my balcony (well, many floors below my balcony, but a direct fall/jump) that sells the most delicious fried chicken. Sometimes I step out and look over the railing to see if they have a good selection and then go pick the pieces I spied, because I love food and the deliciousness of this chicken is just beyond mortal resistance. It used to be a lady and her husband with their chubby daughter running around everywhere, but then the daughter had to go to school and now they seem to have brought in

Being treated equally isn’t always what it seems. I’ll just come right out and say that I balk when I hear women claim they are treated completely the same as men are at their gyms in Thailand. I find it so hard to believe that I quite frankly don’t believe it. On the one hand, even if treated with kindness and respect on both sides of gender, men and women are rarely treated exactly equal anywhere in the world. I wouldn’t claim this about how I’m treated in my own family or among my friends; and while I do feel

I write a lot about how having a female body and female identity in a male-dominated sport and alien culture places limits on my possibilities as a fighter. There are also ways in which my anatomical build and a general physiognomy work to my advantage, (I use the word “physiognomy” throughout because none fit better, despite it not being exact): Namely, the ways in which my body isn’t stereotypically feminine create some new possibilities of perception and opportunity, not just drawbacks. I have just written about status and how near invisible behaviors, can affect it: The Mitt And the Joke. This

A woman I know from the US wrote to me and asked me how one knows whether or not one’s gym situation is severely messed up. She then told me about a very alarmingly abusive power dynamic between the owners/managers of her previous gym and how they treated female gym members, as well as their more physical power trips over male and female members during sparring. She wanted to write about it, to help women who might be in similar situations realize that this is not okay. In the way you can change any love song into a Christian Rock

y stitch count stands at 51 stitches, most of which are in my face. When looking in a mirror, I can see about five vertical lines along my hairline and forehead. I love them. I haven’t always, but I do now – they’re part of my story and in the context of what I love, where my heart has taken me, they’re something I have pride in. The other day I imagined what it would be like to go back to the US and work the job I had before, which was bartending. It’s a very image-conscious occupation and it

This is a bit of a free form thought response to reading a very interesting article. I wrote a blog post recently on the role of menstrual taboo in Thailand limiting women’s access to the top stadia and restricting equality and possibilities in Muay Thai, called “Can Bleed Like a Man – Lumpinee, Muay Thai, Culture, Sexism and Meme.” A lot of responses to that blog post were positive and thoughtful, even those that disagreed with my thesis that traditions which view and treat a class or group of persons as unclean, corrosive or polluting are simply unsustainable. These views

The responses to my latest article The Fragility of Western Masculinity has been very interesting and somewhat unexpected. It has been, already, my most widely read article, and surprisingly has been embraced by a lot of men, a group that I’d anticipated would take offense. There have been the usual “shut up! you don’t know what your [sic] talking about!” comments with more or less expletives to add flavor, but they’ve been largely drowned out by sincere male fighters who recognize something in both kinds of masculinity examined in the post and who want to push themselves for more. (I see

To begin, these are my observations as a female fighter in Thailand who has pursued learning clinch for 3+ years. Other female fighters may have had other experiences, but difference of experience does not mean that the theme of what I write about here is not true or relevant. It also does not mean that what other women experience, if different, is false – there is room in the world for a plurality of experiences. What I’m writing about here is not meant to scare anyone away from training in Thailand or pursuing clinch with the men in their gyms;